DiGiorno captures the sass of Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine to reach fans across HAQM

For DiGiorno, “cultural relevance continues to be really, really important to us,” says Kimberly Holowiak, Senior Brand Manager at DiGiorno. And so the brand decided the best approach was to fully embrace the Deadpool & Wolverine ethos with this campaign.

“We really wanted to lean all the way into Deadpool,” Holowiak says. “We did this through the creative as well. With the humor, with the edginess in the commercial, in the HAQM activation, everything we did, we just wanted to make sure that we embodied the voice of Deadpool with that spirit of DiGiorno.”

For the campaign, the HAQM Ads Brand Innovation Lab created a video ad that appears to be a routine HAQM delivery of a DiGiorno-branded box until it turns into a surprising brush with Deadpool himself. The video ad ran across online video placements, streaming TV, Prime Video, HAQM DSP, and IMDb.com, and drove to a custom Brand Store that showed the perfect night in with DiGiorno pizza. Inspired by each limited-edition pie, the Brand Innovation Lab curated items for epic nights in that deliver the perfect hang-out with nods to Deadpool & Wolverine, making it easier for customers to maximize any occasion.

What was important to this campaign was authentically capturing the specific tone of Deadpool. Think: Deadpool slamming the door in the face of a delivery driver. Or pizzas inspired by a chimichanga.

Authenticity is important to consumers when choosing where they want to spend their money. According to the 2025 Higher Impact Study from HAQM Ads, 69% of consumers across Canada, U.K., and U.S. are prepared to pay more for brands, products, and services that are truly authentic.

“Consumers want something unique,” Holowiak says. “They want something that they're going to be able to relate to and they can see through when it's only done halfway. So we wanted to be as full force as we could. I think the other reason why it's so important is because we're building relationships, two-way relationships with consumers.”

The campaign also included an IMDb.com page sponsorship as well as sponsorship of the IMDboat at Comic-Con. From July 25–27, IMDb.com invited fans aboard the IMDboat to participate in a variety of activities, including the DiGiorno Relax and Recharge Lounge, which served up complimentary drinks and new, limited-edition pizzas inspired by the theatrical release of Deadpool & Wolverine.

This multi-channel approach resonated with how communities naturally form around entertainment today. According to the Beyond the Generational Divide research from HAQM Ads, 83% of consumers say their communities influence their entertainment choices, with nearly 3 in 5 consumers across ages engaging with their interests through in-person events. The IMDboat activation created an authentic space for the DiGiorno and Deadpool & Wolverine fan communities to come together. ¹

“Having that physical presence was huge for us,” Holowiak says. “Having Deadpool & Wolverine there just added to the excitement.”

By the conclusion of the campaign in September 2024, DiGiorno saw a +6.6% offline sales lift among non-brand buyers and a $3.5 million incremental offline sales lift. ²

“We saw amazing results with 54% of adults likely to consider purchasing DiGiorno now after seeing this campaign. It was 322 million impressions and 53% new to brand,” Holowiak says. “Working with HAQM was really, really great. We were able to do a lot of additional custom content. We had the Brand Store, the content hub, HAQM, HAQM Fresh, custom video, just so much flexibility and flexibility from the team we worked with.”

What was important to the success was the breadth of touchpoints across this full-funnel campaign.

“The value of the major touchpoints was huge, and that was really what made it all worthwhile,” Holowiak says. “It was very much full-funnel completely from the upper funnel to the lower funnel. We were really, really excited to work with HAQM because, first and foremost, HAQM is a huge opportunity for us. The capabilities that we were presented, the options that we had from Twitch, Prime Video ads, IMDb, just everything. The share of voice that we were able to get was so big, so we wanted to just lean in as much as possible.”

Based on the buzz from customers and the business success across DiGiorno’s parent company Nestlé, Holowiak says they are excited to see how they can build on this campaign with HAQM Ads in the future. There’s no doubt that they’ll be able to deliver another memorable and authentic experience. But there’s only one Deadpool... or well... multiple Deadpools. And his frenemy Wolverine.